When Autograph opened for Van Halen on their ‘1984’ tour, it was a big break for them. They played 48 shows, a significant experience for an unsigned band. Yet, this tour brought an unexpected challenge for Steve Lynch, as he faced an issue with Van Halen’s management over his guitar playing technique.
Lynch had made two-handed tapping a key part of his guitar style, which he also wrote about in his 1982 book ‘The Right Touch: The Art Of Hammering Notes With The Right Hand.’ Eddie Van Halen, on the other hand, was famous for popularizing this technique in rock music. So, Van Halen’s management was not pleased with the Autograph guitarist using a similar style:
“When our tour with Van Halen started, I was asked by their management, ‘Are you Steve Lynch, the one who wrote ‘The Right Touch?’ I said, ‘Yes, I am.’ I was then aggressively informed, ‘That’s Eddie’s technique; you’re not allowed to play it on the tour – or else.’ I was pissed that I couldn’t play something I had created.”
Eddie sorted out the problem, though:
“So, later on, I confronted Eddie about it, to which he replied, ‘I had no idea they put those restrictions on you. I’ll call the dogs off.’ I graciously thanked him and played whatever I wanted for the rest of the tour. I’ll never know if he was telling the truth, but I don’t care; we hit it off well after that.”
How Lynch Developed His Style
Autograph gained popularity with their 1984 hit single ‘Turn Up The Radio’ from their first album, ‘Sign In Please.’ At the same time, Lynch perfected his two-handed tapping technique, which he started developing in the ’70s. The guitarist recalled the technique’s origins by saying:
“I first saw Harvey Mandel playing around with it at a soundcheck at a club in downtown Seattle in the early Seventies. That’s what first inspired me. Then, I saw a local guy named Steve Buffington experimenting with it, which made me pursue it more. But Emmett Chapman, the inventor of the Stick, made me immerse myself in it.”
He added:
“He did a clinic at GIT [Guitar Institute of Technology, now the Musicians Institute], and I was awestruck by the sounds he created. I immediately began to train my hand and began writing the two-hand theory, including arpeggios, triads, chord inversions, scales, intervals, and double-stops.”
In 1985, Lynch’s work paid off when he won the ‘Guitar Solo Of The Year’ award from Guitar Player magazine for his solo on ‘Turn Up The Radio.’ He continued to share this technique by teaching it around the world as he toured with Autograph.
